Importance Of Professional Identity In Nursing

Introduction

Professional identity in nursing can be defined as: a self-concept including both professional and personal development based on values, beliefs, attributes, knowledge, experiences and skills that a nurse defined themselves in the nursing field which is essential in the nursing profession. Nurses who have created their identity are more successful in the development of their nursing role (Slay & Smith, 2011).

Professional identity has been an important concept during my three years nursing education. It was formed before I enrolled in the bachelor of nursing programme. At that time, I thought caring was the main thing for a nurse. I have further developed the professional identity through my nursing education. In this assignment,

For me, my professional identity is caring, working actively to meet patients’ needs and treat patients with dignity and respect. This helped me to fit in well in my professional life and it showed me the meaning in nurse’s work. Moreover, I think it will impact on the development of my nursing career in the future as well. I think there are two main factors that can have positive influence on the development of professional identity. Firstly, positive preceptor relationship. Secondly, learning how to work collaboratively and communicate effectively with the patient and

The theory of nursing as caring provided frameworks and basic knowledge to me to facilitate patient to meet their needs. According to Boykin, Smith &Aleman (2003), care or caring is the fundamental and core value of nursing. In the theory of nursing as caring explicated by Wen (2016), researchers used qualitative research method through interviews to examine the first-year nursing students’ understanding of professional identity. The result of the study showed the caring is the initial key concept of professional identity. Based on Erikson’s work professional identity can be defined as the individual’s feeling of belonging and social image in a professional group which have essential impact on the human development (Wen, 2016). And it’s important for nurses to well develop professional identity, because it helps nurses to provide higher degree of health care services to the patient. In this journal article, Wen (2016) stated that caring is one of the main elements of nursing and it represents the meaning of nursing. Caring is a basic concept of nursing. Wen (2016) believed that a person’s level of education, culture, learning and working experience all closely related to the development of professional